I was just standing in an elevator with a sign that said: Send back to 0 after use to save energy. How would sending an elevator back to 0 without any people in it ever be more energy efficient?

Question

I was just standing in an elevator with a sign that said: Send back to 0 after use to save energy. How would sending an elevator back to 0 without any people in it ever be more energy efficient?

In: Other

Answer 1

Odds are that the person writing the sign had no idea what they were talking about.
Modern elevators are counterbalanced.
IE they have a bunch of weights attached to the car by cables that go down when the elevator goes up and go up when the elevator goes down.
Thus they cancel out the weight of the car.
The motors only have to lift the weight of the contents.
And at that, they’re only expending energy changing floors, not when they have the brakes engaged.